Comic book writer and Superman fan Mark Millar made some comments a few years ago on SR before it when into producion. I was wondering who was the director friend that was in talks to make Superman? Was that ever revealed?

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More on the Superman Production?

February 18, 2004

But comic book writer Mark Millar claims production on Superman is a no-go. He posted the following on his message board...

Trust me, McG is not getting anywhere NEAR this ****ing thing. He (and others) are talking about this as a means of rejigging their careers. No actress is being seriously considered for Lois and nobody is being auditioned for Supes because there is NO MOVIE, folks. Here's the scoop...

The movie is already something like 50 mill in debt because of all the false-starts. It's a HUGE problem because they want big stars, big effects and a big budget and this would push you to the 250, 300 million mark. This ain't gonna happen, especially with someone as choppy as McG and that ****ing awful script kicking around. A chum of mine, like I've said, has been making calls and taking meetings very quietly, has a few things he has to finish first and plans to get moving on this around 2006. Believe NONE of this bull**** you're reading because Beyonce, etc, etc, is just all pish. The real deal is still two years away from even seriously starting work on this so the flick isn't going to be seen until around 2007 at the earliest. There'll be possibly two Batman pics before the next Superman.

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Is Jim Caviezel Superman?
Source: Mark Millar

August 30, 2004

Comic book writer Mark Millar has posted on his official website that "The Passion of The Christ" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" star Jim Caviezel is the new Superman...

You remember I told you to relax about Superman? That a very, very trusted and experienced director we'd all love was coming over? That McG was just a blip? That everything would be fine?

Well, my same good buddy has informed me that, as of last Thursday night, Mister Jim Caviezel is officially the new man of steel and what a perfect choice he is. Expect an announcement shortly. Also, this Superman Returns thing was just for the press release. The movie itself is called SUPERMAN (Reeve's was called SUPERMAN THE MOVIE) and it's starting everything from scratch. Brainiac. Krypton. Robots. Alien super-cities.

We'll have to wait and see if Warner Bros. confirms this. Bryan Singer is directing the film for a Summer 2006 release.

Caviezel's manager, Beverly Dean, previously said that the actor would be interested in playing the role. "Would he like to do it? He loves Superman. But the truth is there has been no offer, the script isn't even finished - but absolutely he'd be interested."

Also, this Superman Returns thing was just for the press release. The movie itself is called SUPERMAN (Reeve's was called SUPERMAN THE MOVIE) and it's starting everything from scratch. Brainiac. Krypton. Robots. Alien super-cities.

I find this part very amusing...don't know who was giving him info but they were obviously off the mark.

Not sure who he was referring to in the first article and don't recall it ever coming out. But again, it sounds as if things were already in motion with Singer that he was unaware of considering the time table he laid out.

Yesterday the Scottish comic book writer and producer Mark Millar told The Times that Warners had approached him and Matthew Vaughn, the director of Layer Cake, to reboot the franchise. The last attempt at reviving Superman on screen, Superman Returns in 2006, was deemed to be a critical and financial failure and Millar and Vaughn had plans to turn the Man of Steel into a Lord of the Rings-type epic. However, the studio got cold feet and Millar and Vaughn moved on to other things. "They spoke to me and Matthew last year and we were obviously very interested as the love is there and the potential is enormous," he said yesterday.
"But we're not involved in Superman at this stage."

Millar, who is currently is collaborating with Vaughn on the movie adaptation of his hit comic Kick-Ass, told The Times earlier this year that his plan was "to do a Superman movie unlike anything you've ever seen before. Matthew wanted to cast someone who looked nothing like Christopher Reeve and create a new Superman for this generation. But Superman is still in stasis at the moment because the last one lost so much money and [Warners] are scared to do anything with the character right now. I'm not holding my breath."

Unlike Siegel and Shuster - and scores of comic book writers and artists throughout the years - Millar has managed to retain control over his creations. But asked if there was a danger that Marvel and DC would lose control of their characters, he said: "The big companies will own those old characters as long as Disney own Mickey Mouse, unfortunately. Guys like Jerry and Joe created Superman at a very different time. Anything created before the Eighties and Nineties was signed away to the big companies and the best-case scenario, realistically, is a generous pay-out for their families in these situations. Guys like me, who created new characters in this past decade, owe an enormous debt to all the creators who came before us. What happened to them taught us that companies don't have loyalties to creators when they get old and we need to retain ownership on the characters to look after our creative freedom and our long-term finances."

I'm tired of the enormous amount disrespect that my character receives.

__________________

There was a time above... a time before. There were perfect things... diamond absolutes. But things fall, things on Earth. And what falls... is fallen. In the dream, they took me to the light. A beautiful lie.

So it seems something huge has happened and I'm possibly going to be involved in a major, major superhero movie planned for very soon. I'm generally not interested in working on other people's characters outside comics, but this is big and something I would give Hitchy's potent left nut for so I'm meeting with some people tomorrow and going over the details. If this is happening things will move very, very fast, but the call was NOY something I anticipated.

Sorry to be so vague, but you'll understand why once you find out what this is. Some very powerful players involved. More to come. Area 51, of course, I'll explain everything, but this is very very cool. Exciting times!

Financially, it makes so much sense for us to do one of our own properties next, either Nemesis or American Jesus or whatever. But Matthew and I talk all the time about the notion of revamping Superman for a new generation (and YES, 30 somethings, that DOES mean an origin to explain where the Hell he came from to my daughter and her pals). Obviously, there's some legal **** to sort out but anyone who thinks Superman is gone is just plum crazy. Should we pursue this aggressively, especially given the buzz on Kick-Ass is just astronomical and Matthew is being offered pretty much anything he wants to do?

We had so much fun casting around on all this, just idle chats in the pub as we scribbled our notes. Imagine Daniel Craig as Lex Luthor, Clint Eastwood as Pa Kent, Daniel Day-Lewis and Julianne Moore as Jor-El and Lara. And the idea one of our production team had for Jimmy Olsen is just GENIUS! But let's not get ahead of ourselves. What do YOU guys think? You wanna see the Kick-Ass team REALLY go after Superman or develop something else?

MM

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Originally Posted by 'Mark Millar

I have no doubt we'd do a great Superman movie. Matthew has stated that Bond has been revamped, as has Batman, Star Trek and all the other favourites from our childhood. Superman never really got that revamp so much as a finale to the Donner movies. So he's still primed for a reboot for a new century and a new audience. THAT SAID, I love it too much to do something compromised. Something that means notes from lots of people who thought it was awesome to have him in bed at the end of the last movie. I dunno. Is it worth the grief? I love Superman too much to do something that wouldn't be perfect. Kick-Ass was an amazing experience. It's just how I want to work now.

If you do it (and it sounds like a dream project, studio interference aside), then I'd love the origin to be done in the All-Star-Superman style: a quick recap of the basic story that everyone knows (seriously, even people who have never read a Superman comic or seen a Superman movie in their lives know the origin) and get to the good stuff quickly rather than spending half a movie on another origin story.

Unless you've got some special new ideas for the origin, in which case go for it.

Honestly, you could not be more wrong, Dave. This approach is fine for people aiming at a small group of hardcore fans, but the modern general public have no idea who Superman's parents are or where he came from. People over 30 might and people over 40 generally do (though might be very sketchy on anything beyond Krypton exploding and adoptive Earth parents). But this should be aimed at 7- 25 year olds primarily. Donner is my hero, but he said to me in person that he had to make Superman his own as opposed to the George Reeves one the previous generation was so familiar with. I was EIGHT the last time Superman's origin was retold for the mainstream and I turned FORTY last week. We are now as far away from Superman The Movie as Superman The Movie was from It's A Wonderful Life and Brief Encounter.

Anyone who suggests that normal teenagers know enough about Superman to start halfway through the story or do a quick recap simply don't have kids. Nobody under 30 (who didn't have a comic collection) had a clue about the plot of that last movie. Plus we have so many great ways of doing Krypton now in the digital age with lush Scarlet Jungles or Jor-El climbing the Jewel Mountains who WOULDN'T want a little back-story, especially if Brainiac (as he should be) gets to be the villain of the piece. The plan Matthew and I had featured a LOT of Krypton, but it was very action packed and sci fi and had massive battles going on before the planet erupted. It would be all new material but touching base with some of the back-drops and characters we've seen in the comics, though by no means aimed at the hardcore Superman fans like myself.

I don't mean another rehashed origin like DC seem to do every ten mins. OF COURSE comic fans don't need to be educated in such matters. Brainiac, on the other hand, is another matter. You've got to start the story at the beginning and do it justice. And by that I don't mean bollocks like Smallville. It needs to be smart and grand and epic, treated with the same dignity Nolan brought to Batman, though obviously a very different tone as Superman is a more optimistic character. Batman is all about vengeance whereas the tone of Superman should be uplifting. You should walk out that cinema with the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. It should be almost a spiritual experience.

Financially, it would be best just to do American Jesus or Nemesis or something. It would also be less hassle as we'd be working for ourselves. But we love this and what could be better than bringing something you love to a whole new generation, lighting it up for another thirty years? But like I said I'd rather NOT do Superman than do a BAD Superman movie. It means too much to us.

Just how heavy is Superman’s cape? Ask Henry Cavill, the British actor who has the weight of history, expectations and a blockbuster budget all sitting on his broad shoulders.

Cavill will portray “the last son” of the planet Krypton in “Man of Steel,” the 2013 release that Warner Bros. hopes will launch a franchise to fill the void left by Harry Potter’s graduation from Hogwarts and Christopher Nolan’s pending departure from Gotham City.

The film has been shooting in Vancouver but Cavill made a quick trip to Los Angeles recently to promote the film “Immortals” and he sat down with our Geoff Boucher for a lengthy interview that led to a Los Angeles Times cover story on that mythology film and the actor’s own life odyssey.

There was plenty that didn’t make it into the story — most of it about “Man of Steel” — and you’ll find it in the Q&A below, including Cavill’s interest in “Red Son” and Mark Millar’s alternate “history” that imagines what would have happened if baby Superman’s rocket had landed in the Soviet Union.